To Trilogy or Not to Trilogy

I’m finally at the point to make plans and decisions about my next big thing: Rjg.

Pronounced /ɹɨːjɡ̈/.

I’m currently playing with the outline for this epic and a certain pattern emerges. Again.
The pattern has a name: a trilogy. A three-part structure, centering on the life of a certain man, a powerful historical figure in my alien universe.

My goal is to write 255 000 words (Falaha’s series was ~206 000 words long). The two following years seem like a plausible time frame to get the job done, so I’ll probably be ready by late autumn 2017. (Smaller works shall be produced midway as well, if something worthy strikes my imagination.)

I had been starting this novel once before. I ended up writing a completely different series, of course. But I discovered one important thing during that slip of the hand: my real protagonist for this giant book.

Now, one of my concerns is whether I should release the story as a trilogy or as one complete book. (Honestly, that’s a behemoth-sized book!) I’m aiming to have fully resolved smaller arcs in these three parts, with one big resolution at the end. And having a series is certainly a viable commercial model — not in releasing them one by one, but in selling three books instead of one. The win is in the quantity of sales, while offering appealing prices.

I’m in favor of the huge one so far. Fewer covers to design, fewer files to keep track of. But I’m not sure it will appeal to readers at such size. Time is precious, some prefer smaller installments. Especially if they are full-novel sized (85k per chunk.) And later just pack them as boxed set, job done.

If I’d go for three books, the output would be this:

Blood Threads (Rjg #1)
Adventurous Tide (Rjg #2)
Godslayer (Rjg #3)

Certainly an issue to think about.

The other thing that is going to happen — a complete change of initial plot. I have extensive notes from my earlier attempt and I figured that I shall be remodeling the whole thing anew (certainly better that fully rewriting the draft afterwards!). Now that I am an experienced writer, I can work much faster and more precise on the stories. Yay. 😉

So this summer I’ll be busy with certain things, blogging about them as I go. Those include but not limited to: planetary system including the map, planetary maps (detailed), cultures’ snapshots (belief systems, customs, languages, calendars, etc.) and timelines (development, achievements, etc.), characters & plot, the world ecosystems, atmosphere/ocean model with wind & ocean current maps. All this even after I had almost finished all these jobs once.

The difference now is that I’m no longer afraid to write the big book. 🙂

P.S. Stay tuned for the new release (The Man in a Box and complete Falaha’s Book 3.5) somewhere April/May, and for April’s blogging challenge (I have to admit I’m still in the process of thinking about what to write for this one. Haha.)

P.P.S. Maybe I should buy Scrivener. If there’s time to get and learn how to use one, it’s between books!